Disney Through The Years - The 1980s: Live Action Features
Welcome to the tenth of many parts of a series of feature articles focused on Disney movies.
Every month this year I am going decade-by-decade through the history of Walt Disney Company’s feature films. I will review each film from Walt Disney Animation Studios and rank them. As the title of this article suggests, I’m also doing an additional feature in the series that focuses on every live action film by Walt Disney Pictures. So, there are two features each month to keep an eye out for.
We are at the halfway point in this series!
That being the case - and since the 1980s was the decade the company began diversifying and creating subsidiary studios - I thought it was time to reiterate the scope and boundaries of this series of articles. I quote an article on Wikipedia:
This list is only for films released under the main Disney banner. The list does not include films produced or released by other existing, defunct or divested labels or subsidiaries owned by Walt Disney Studios nor any direct-to-video releases, TV films, theatrical re-releases, or films originally released by other non-Disney studios.
That means no films by The Disney Channel (which launched on April 18, 1983), Touchstone Pictures (founded in 1984), DisneyNature, DisneyToons, LucasFilm, Marvel Studios, Pixar, Studio Ghibli, or 20th Century Fox. Just Disney Animation Studios and Walt Disney Pictures (officially known as Walt Disney Productions until 1983) with the specific focus on what’s available on Disney+.
Because of that and the focus on projects available on Disney+, the list and overall Big Picture of the studio’s productions in the 1980s is greatly narrowed. The focus on Disney+, in particular, has the biggest effect since a handful of the studio’s output in the first half of the decade is nowhere to be seen online. These films would be The Watcher in the Woods (1980), The Devil and Max Devlin (1981), Condorman (1981) - not a great loss, trust me - Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983), and Never Cry Wolf (1983). Most of these helped further the dark and joyless period that started in the ‘70s and continued throughout most of the ‘80s. Excluding them, as I am forced to do for the most part, takes away from the overall feel of this period. However, I do include Never Cry Wolf, despite its current omission from the streamer, and I hope there’s enough other films here to provide context and insight into the studio’s output in the decade.
Herbie Goes Bananas (1980)
Pete (Stephan Burns) - the nephew of Jim Douglas - and his friend DJ (Charles Martin Smith) go to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico to retrieve Herbie. Meanwhile, three men plan to steal gold from Incan ruins. A troublesome pickpocket orphan serves as the point that brings the two plots together in the fourth film in the Love Bug series.
Holy hell, this movie... they literally killed Herbie! And then zombie Herbie rose from the ocean! And he was flailing in a cove like Jason Voorhees in Crystal Lake! And then a pickpocket Mexican boy who calls Herbie 'Ocho' (even though Herbie clearly has the number 53 painted on him not 8 ) built a grave around Herbie... And now zombie Herbie and Mexican pickpocket child is riding around the city with a children's chorus. And then a couple of criminals threaten to torture Herbie with a blowtorch...!
Kinda cool to see a young and skinny Charles Martin Smith, though. And Harvey Corman and Cloris Leachman were TV sitcom alums at this point and they play well off each other. But their appearances offer faint comfort in this film that truly lives up to its name. I thought Herbie Rides Again was bad... this was approaching Treasure of Matecumbe levels of bafflement.
Amy (1981)
A young woman (Jenny Agutter) leaves her husband behind and teaches speech to deaf students in the rural Appalachian Mountains at a school for blind and deaf children.
This melodrama was directed by Vincent McEveety, who had directed several movies for Walt Disney Pictures in the ‘70s, including The Million Dollar Duck and The Strongest Man in the World. This would be the last film he’d direct for the studio. It was originally intended to be a TV movie, but was pivoted to theaters instead - and that decision is felt in the production.
That said this is a well-meaning film that attempts to depict the deaf with dignity, as well as the frustratingly limited perspectives towards the community of the time. The film does have its own questionable decisions, such as the fact that Amy refused to learn any sign language so as to interact with her students outside of the classroom and the fact that her entire instruction is based around making the deaf more like the hearing-abled by teaching them to talk. I would be curious to hear how members of the deaf community feel about Amy’s work.
It’s also unclear if Amy Medford was a real person, as no search results indicate that might be the case. If this is a work of pure fiction then that makes some of the decisions in the film even more questionable. But it certainly is a movie with its heart in the right place and is far more enjoyable than expected.
TRON (1982)
We skip over the superhero espionage comedy Condorman (trust me, it’s for the best) to this early ‘80s techno-thriller about… deep breath - the former employee of a tech company, Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges), tries hacking into the computer systems of said tech company in order to find proof that its current senior executive vice president, Ed Dillinger (David Warner), stole and profited off Flynn’s video game creations. Meanwhile, Dillinger is actually under the control and influence of the company’s star program, the Master Control Program, which is self-aware and expanding its reach into government systems. In order to get Flynn out of the way, the MCP transports Flynn into the “mainframe cyberspace”. Whew!
Okay, so Tron (named after a security program that Bruce Boxleitner’s character created) is a film full of dazzling visual ideas. The ideas essentially boil down to this: “What if we were to go inside our computers and the programs were living entities?”. While the basic plot mostly makes sense, the technological world-building is half-baked. It is rare that I actually wish a film to have more exposition than it does. But there is so little that is explained, which is a problem when there are so many cool vehicles, locations, and characters within the mainframe and roughly 80 of the film’s 96 minutes takes place within this world.
The film also introduces this idea of the MCP and a command program, Sark, oppressing other computer programs who might believe in Users and force believers into gladiatorial games to the death. This is interesting, because a) both the MCP and Sark know that Users are real and b) they’re introducing the idea of religious oppression. But… there’s no audience for these games. So, the programs are fighting each other to the death, but to what purpose for the victor? Delayed death? The concepts of the games themselves are really cool. But it feels like the overall concept could have been fleshed out more. Is there a society of oppressed programs? Why don’t we see more than just those who are trained to compete in the games? Why are there guard programs without faces? Were they not created by people? And why is it that Flynn is able to change the color of his outfit just by touching a program? Aside from hiding out, what does that really do for him?
There’s so many unanswered questions in the film that it feels like the film hopes to get by on style and tension. It almost works. But when the finale of the film involves a typed up piece of paper that anyone could have created at any moment and passed off as the real thing you gotta figure the script could have delivered a little more.
That said, the technological advancements created during production were incredibly tedious and labored and deserving of far more recognition than it got at the time. It involved various types of artists, a ridiculous amount of Kodalith sheets, Ektachrome film, rotoscoping, hundreds of matte paintings, 15-20 minutes of CGI, and computers with 2MB of memory and 330MB of storage. It is some extraordinary hard work that still pays off 40 years later.
If only everything else in the film did, too.
Never Cry Wolf (1983)
A biologist (Charles Martin Smith) is sent by the Canadian government into the wilderness to study the caribou population, whose decline is believed to be caused by wolves, even though no one has seen a wolf kill a caribou.
Based on the Farley Mowat 1963 autobiography, Never Cry Wolf was certainly a huge departure for the studio. It was mature, contemplative, beautiful, and poignant. And it’s been completely forgotten. As mentioned before, Never Cry Wolf IS NOT available on Disney+. However, it is available to rent on Amazon and Apple, so it hasn’t been completely erased. But it has never been brought to Blu-ray. For purposes of this article I watched my bare-bones DVD copy.
The reason why I’m including it is, even though it isn’t currently available on Disney+, excluding it definitely affects the bigger picture of the studio’s period. The studio was in a dark place overall, but with Never Cry Wolf they took a chance on something more dramatic and mature, something that required its audience’s patience. This is a movie where 60 of its 105 minutes features one man alone in the arctic wilderness with nature, his supplies, and an oboe. And yet, it is still one of the most fascinating and beautiful films the studio ever produced. It also recalls the tradition Walt introduced with Bambi - and, in a way, Snow White, before it - of examining the relationship between man and nature.
Credit must go to director Caroll Ballard. This is the guy who shot all of the exterior desert scenes in the original Star Wars. His directorial debut was Black Stallion (1979) and he would eventually shoot Fly Away Home more than 10 years after this film. Ballard had a knack for gorgeous nature dramas. He knew how to shoot nature with a respect, dignity, and beauty that hadn’t been seen before.
Never Cry Wolf was a modest success, making more than double its $11 million budget. Over the past 25 years it’s largely been forgotten, but it certainly is a gem from Disney’s past that needs to be rediscovered. Adding it to Disney+ would certainly help.
Return to Oz (1985)
A blend of the books The Marvelous Land of Oz and Ozma of Oz, Return to Oz acts as a sequel to the 1939 classic film with Dorothy Gale (Fairuza Balk) returning to the Land of Oz and discovering the Emerald City has been destroyed and its citizens turned to stone by the Nome King. It’s up to Dorothy and a group of new friends to restore the Emerald City and save its king, The Scarecrow.
What happened to Dorothy after The Wizard of Oz? She got shock therapy! This was such a weird-ass movie that helped define Disney's dark period. The director even knew the dark tone would be a gamble and it certainly did not pay off; the film made less than half its budget and attained minor cult status. That cult appeal, I bet, is largely due to its nightmarish and oddball elements - all of which actually come from the books. There are a group of henchmen called The Wheelers who have wheels instead of hands or feet (how they can do more than bully and chase anyone around, I don’t know). One character is nearly eaten by the main villain, The Nome King, who stretches his mouth wide open. He’s saved by a chicken. There’s an entire hall of heads that could wake up at any second staring at you with wide eyes and scream. Add on top of that a headless woman chasing after the main character and you have an unforgettable nightmare-inducing movie.
If so much of this film didn’t come straight from the mind of L. L. Baum I would say the screenwriters were doing too much cocaine. Then again, this is supposed to take place not long after the original film and it certainly doesn’t cohere with it in style, tone, or nearly anything else. This is a very dark and disturbing film. One must almost admire the studio for taking such a huge risk. However, the darn thing just doesn’t work. You never really get the sense of who the two villains are in relation to each other or why we never heard of or saw them in the original. Where the hell were they when Dorothy was taking on the Wicked Witch of the West? The books answer these questions, but the movie doesn’t.
Overall, it’s unclear who this film is for since it’s too disturbing for little kids and somewhat unsatisfying for adults. Like the film’s overall mediocre quality, it sits in this odd middle-ground place in terms of target audience. It certainly typified the loss of magic in the studio. It would take a couple more releases before the studio would get its groove back after having lost it for nearly 20 years.
The Journey of Natty Gann (1985)
The titular character is a teenage girl in Depression-era Chicago. The titular journey is Natty’s travels to reunite with her dad, who suddenly took a job in Washington State.
That journey includes dog fighting, attempted child molestation, being nearly blown up, and several other episodic encounters. This journey certainly ain’t for the faint of heart - or the young. I appreciate the period accuracy of antagonism and dismissal many adults had towards children at the time. So many movies today soften the edges of how adults treated adolescents throughout history. And, when paired with a film like Never Cry Wolf and a handful of other films to come over the following 10 years, there was an interesting emphasis on man’s relationship with nature by the studio. In Natty Gann, our protagonist befriends a wolf and they help each other survive on her journey.
It should be noted this film stars Ray Wise in a surprisingly warm-hearted role as Natty’s father. Wise is a character actor who would be better known for his roles in such TV shows as Twin Peaks, 24, Reaper, and Fresh Off the Boat. Oddly enough, John Cusack is prominently featured in the box and streaming art for the film, yet he has maybe 20 minutes of screen time. Other notable cast members include future award-winning screenwriter Grant Heslov, Lainie Kazan, and Scatman Crothers.
This is a decent film, though one more suited towards preteens and teenagers, as it does have an imbalanced feeling between heart-warming drama and realism that never quite works. But it is certainly more successful than The Return to Oz from a couple months prior. The studio was definitely reaching for something they’d be more successful at in later years.
One Magic Christmas (1985)
Times are tough for a weary and cynical mother (Mary Steenburgen), but she is given a reminder of the Christmas spirit by an angel (Harry Dean Stanton) and Santa Claus (Jan Rubes).
One Magic Christmas? More like One Tragic Christmas, am I right?
This was the studio’s first live action Christmas movie if I understand correctly. It is strange that it took 30 years for the studio to create such a movie, as you’d think the magic of Christmas and the magic of Walt Disney Pictures would go hand-in-hand. Well… maybe that was the case when Walt was alive. But it sure wasn’t the case in the 1980s. What we get here is a single-income family (can you imagine supporting 4 people on a grocery paycheck today?!) going through some hard times with job loss (the husband, a lovely Gary Basaraba, was recently fired) and pending home displacement. On top of it all, there’s mom’s negative attitude, one that is willing to freely dispel her 7-year-old daughter of her belief in Santa Clause (her son and husband thankfully stop her). Oh, and they only have one bathroom - that is, until they get kicked out of their home. And her son accidentally breaks the bathroom window. How could things possibly get worse?
Well, leave it to the magic of 1980s Walt Disney Pictures to tell you how bad things could get. This film takes a sharp left turn halfway through and gets incredibly dark and depressing. People die. And all of this is to teach Mom a lesson that things could be worse and she should be grateful for what she has. This is pretty rough stuff and quite a harsh take on a Christmas movie from the studio that defined fairy tales for a couple of generations. All the players do well with the material - well, Stanton does come off unintentionally as the kind of guy little girls should not be alone with - but, whoa boy, this is one forgotten Christmas that should stay in obscurity.
Flight of the Navigator (1986)
A 12-year-old boy (Joey Cramer) discovers he’s been displaced in time and may have a connection to a spaceship recently discovered by NASA.
Walt Disney Pictures finally started to lighten up and recapture some of the wonder it’s always been capable of - and maybe exceeded in some ways - with Flight of the Navigator. Here is a film that is a wholly original piece of science fiction with imaginative alien creatures and visual effects. The film is noted in the visual effects field for being one of the first to use image-based CGI lighting and morphing. Those effects look slightly artificial 35 years later, but are far from the eye-sore of CGI effects in many ‘90s movies.
The film also has fun, which not many of Disney’s live action films since the ‘60s could claim. Most of the fun comes from Paul Reubens’ Pee-Wee-like voice work and the use of rock music by The Beach Boys. But there is also a sense of wonder the film inspires, in large part due to the score by Alan Silvestri. This score is notable for being his only work that was entirely electronic and the first to use digital multi-track recorders and samplers. It also used something called a Synclavier. The result is a score that evokes a sense of nostalgia for any ‘80s kid, stirred by the wonder and awe it attempts to invoke.
The cast is also worth giving attention. Character actors Veronica Cartwright (Alien) and Cliff De Young (Glory) played David’s parents and do so with a tenderness and credibility. Howard Hesseman (WKRP in Cincinnati, Head of the Class) plays against type at the time as an eager NASA big whig who wants to study David. And Sarah Jessica Parker plays a very likable employee at NASA who befriends David. Flight of the Navigator was far from Parker’s first gig, having already starred in her own short-lived TV series, Square Pegs, and such movies as Footloose and Girls Just Want to Have Fun. However, despite appearing to enjoy herself here, she’s gone on record claiming she still struggled through auditions to get acting jobs and was just happy to have a job with this film. She was 21 at the time and she would burn through a couple more short-lived TV shows before her breakout roles in Honeymoon in Vegas and Hocus Pocus in the early ‘90s.
The film is not without its flaws. It mostly suffers from brevity, both in the script and at times in the editing. There are at least two occasions where a scene is abruptly cut short, as is the score within that scene. It’s fairly jarring and odd. But the script introduces fascinating concepts, creatures, and the suggestion of other worlds. That said, it wants instead to focus on making as much of a bee-line to our hero’s home as possible. We’re left wanting to spend more time in this sleek and cool spaceship and with these fascinating creatures. It all ends up feeling a bit thin. This is one of the few times when Disney could actually remake one of its decent films and broaden its scope to be something really special (a remake has been in development for over 10 years, unable to get out of the script stage).
All in all, Flight of the Navigator offered a much-needed breath of fresh air for the studio that would signal a turning point for things to come.
Benji the Hunted (1987)
After surviving a shipwreck during a storm, the lost dog Benji discovers a group of cougar cubs and takes it upon himself to protect them from dangerous predators until they can be left with a female cougar to raise them.
This is apparently the fifth film in a series that started in 1974. However, this was the only entry produced by Walt Disney Pictures. I’m unable to get any answers in my research as to why the studio produced this entry or why it declined to produce the original since that film would have fit perfectly with the studio’s grab bag output that decade. It was also the last film in the series to star the original dog’s daughter, Benjean, in the title role.
This is a film that has maybe 3 minutes of dialogue in its 88-minute run time. A score by Betty and Euel Box plays during most of the film, attempting to maintain audience interest. This is a film that very much will work for some and bore others, so mileage will vary. The title character sure is smart and displays an incredible amount of intelligence and ingenuity throughout the film. And the cubs are fuzzy and adorable. There is a primary antagonist in the form of a black wolf, which is probably the weakest aspect of the film, as it is a bit too determined to deal with Benji and the cubs at every opportunity and the score becomes the most on-the-nose and silly whenever the wolf appears on screen.
Overall, Disney’s involvement in this entry of the film series is a curious one, but it continues this new series of nature-centric films like Never Cry Wolf and Natty Gann the studio began producing alongside its other projects. Benji the Hunted doesn’t reach the heights of Never Cry Wolf or later nature films by Disney, but it’s by no means the worst the studio produced in the eighties.
Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989)
Due to an accident that affects a scientist’s invention, a handful of neighboring kids get shrunk to 1/8 of an inch and taken out with the trash. They must work together to brave the wilds of a Fresno, California backyard lawn to make it back home, get discovered, and restored to their original size.
Walt Disney Pictures nearly closed the decade with their biggest live action hit in studio history. This was Joe Johnston’s directorial debut, having acted as art director and effects illustrator under the tutelage of Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. He would go on to direct The Rocketeer for Touchstone Pictures, as well as the original Jumanji, Jurassic Park III, and Captain America: The First Avenger.
This feels like the kind of movie where the story was constructed around the title and a character is forced to say the title casually. However, the script came first - one of the few original films in the studio’s history not based on previous material - and the title went through a few versions before utilizing the line of dialogue.
The film itself was everything the studio needed in an era that was shifting towards spectacle and family fun. It manages to be an enjoyable family film without pandering or condescending to younger audiences. The youngest of the kids, Nick (Robert Oliveri), idolizes his father and tries to emulate him with mini versions of his dad’s science projects, but holds a near-equal knowledge and understanding of science. In effect, he is the story’s hero, the one the titular kids go to for understanding and knowledge. Each kid, for the most part, must grow and develop during the course of the story and the adventure they find themselves in forces them to grow. Russ (Thomas Wilson Brown), the lazy teen reluctant towards any physical activity, is forced to be a man of action. Ron (Jared Rushton), the ignored child of his family and bully to his neighbor Nick, learns compassion and real-life consequences of his actions. Amy (Amy O’Neill)… well, supposedly she learns not to be self-absorbed, but we really don’t get much depth to her character. That’s okay, because O’Neill has a strong enough presence to make the character likable - as do all of the cast. Matt Frewer is delightfully bull-headed and frustrated as the dad who wants to pass on his favorite pastimes and is frustrated by his kids’ indifference. Rick Moranis is the MVP as the modern day absent-minded professor, a man who loves his family, but puts his focus on his work over his family, leading to a strain on his marriage that is only hinted at in the script.
That’s probably where the film stumbles a little, as this adventure was clearly intended to force the parents to work together and for Rick’s Wayne to rediscover the importance of what’s right in front of him rather than the next scientific miracle (technically, he happens to do both). It’s all given a bit of lip service.
That said, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids features one of the best opening title sequences in the history of the studio and one of the best themes (James Horner) of all of their live action movies. All of that, plus the spectacle, the humor, and the cast make up what is one of the studio’s best live action movies in at least 20 years.
Cheetah (1989)
Two L.A. teens visiting their parents in Kenya discover and raise a baby cheetah. However, the domesticated animal is faced with the challenge of living in the wild as an adult and a group of schemers who want to use the cheetah for profit.
Keith Coogan (Adventures in Babysitting), sort of the ‘80s version of Tommy Kirk, stars in a family drama that features an exotic and refreshing location, breaking free of the early 20th century and suburban ‘80s settings of most of the studio’s output this decade. And it manages to be fairly interesting and engaging, at least for the first half of its 84 minutes. Eventually, the film focuses on the villains and a scheme to use the cheetah to race against greyhounds. How that is allowed by race organizers in the first place, I don’t know. But it is in this film and the movie follows along. I’m not so sure audiences will.
But what we have here is another film that continues the tradition Walt himself started with Bambi with stories about man’s relationship to nature. It also exposes its young American audience to another world with a different culture and landscape without being terribly xenophobic, condescending, or goofy about it. The studio would continue this in the next decade with mixed results.
The Ranking
Never Cry Wolf
Honey, I Shrunk the Kids
Flight of the Navigator
Cheetah
Benji the Hunted
The Journey of Natty Gann
Amy
Tron
Return to Oz
One Magic Christmas
Herbie Goes Bananas
Generally speaking, the 1980s was almost as rough a decade for the studio as the 1970s. But there was definitely as much progress made in Walt Disney Pictures as in Walt Disney Animation Studios and the decade wasn’t without a couple of forgotten gems and eventual classics as the company found its footing once again.
What do you think?
What are your favorites? Which do you think is the best live action Disney movie of the ‘80s? Comment below or email.
Next up, the animation studio hits its stride with a new run of classic films. But was it able to keep it up or did it eventually burn out? The 1990s Animated Features are next!